Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Lanchester

This parish church began as a collegiate church in 1283 and was at one time known as the church of St. Mary. The building dates mainly from the 12th century, possibly incorporating earlier fabric, with significant alterations and additions in the 13th, 14th, 15th and later centuries.

The church is constructed of sandstone, much of it coursed and squared with large blocks, featuring a plinth, quoins and ashlar dressings. The roofs are of Lakeland slate, with the porch roof having stone flagging.

The plan comprises a west tower, an aisled nave with south porch, and a chancel with a north organ chamber and vestry.

The west tower has short diagonal buttresses flanking a chamfered window with cusped Y tracery. A clock sits in a moulded surround at the top of the high first stage. The belfry features 19th-century openings in a style similar to the west window, with polygonal corner pilasters, under a parapet string with stone drains below battlements with corner pinnacles. Small rectangular lights appear in the north and south elevations and in the stair turret on the south-east. The aisle and nave are battlemented.

The steeply-gabled south porch has a double-chamfered two-centred arch on re-used shafts with cushion capitals, and a sundial in the gable peak. The inner door is round-headed with chevron moulding and is probably 13th-century, with large wrought-iron hinges, partly renewed.

The buttressed aisles have two Tudor-arched lights in hollow-chamfered surrounds, and similar two-light clerestory windows appear above. The lower chancel has varied windows, all with two-centred-arched heads, some with cusped tracery. Three east lancets exist, the central one slightly higher. A partly-blocked two-centred arched vestry window has a Tudor-arched two-light window inserted below it.

The nave roof is hipped at its east end. The chancel roof has an east gable coping with a cross finial and a catslide roof over the vestry.

Interior

The interior features lime-washed plaster with ashlar dressings and arcades. The nave roof, dating to around 1600, rests on slightly-arched tie-beams, as does the south aisle of the same date, while the north aisle is 19th-century. The tower contains a deeply-ribbed vault with a bell-rope roundel. The chancel has an arch-braced early 20th-century roof.

The four-bay arcades have keel-moulded two-centred arches with an inner chamfered arch and a continuous dripmould with nutmeg decoration, resting on round piers with octagonal bases. The north piers are monolithic and probably came from a nearby Roman fort. A chamfered two-centred tower arch with imposts has a corbelled chamfered inner arch. The elliptical-headed chancel arch of two orders has chevron moulding on shafts with cushion capitals, raised on a high base, perhaps from a former screen.

The three-bay chancel contains a massive four-chamfered south-west arch on squinches containing a three-light window. A north organ arch, formerly to a chapel, has a similar shape with four ribs on chamfered reveals. Trefoil heads mark the east lancets and blocked north lancets. The vestry door has a roll-moulded cusped surround with a high-relief carved mutilated figure and foliage in the tympanum in a vigorous flowing style.

Re-used head corbels in the chancel have served as candleholders. These show similarities with corbel heads at Rheims, Westminster and Lincoln, and with head corbels in the chapel of the Nine Altars in Durham Cathedral.

Glass includes three early 13th-century sections depicting the Flight into Egypt, Annunciation to the Shepherds and Adoration of the Magi, set against the south-west chancel window. Other glass includes 19th-century memorials and geometric-patterned clear glass, that in the clerestory by L.C. Evetts.

Monuments

A 14th-century effigy in the south aisle shows a priest with chalice, set in an arch of re-used chevron moulding. Large slabs in the chancel floor commemorate Samuel Sanderson of Hedleyhope, died 1656, and George Baker of Crooke, died 1677. A small brass inscribed to John Rudde, Dean, died 1490, is also present.

The north aisle contains a white marble late 18th-century wall slab in a pilastered frame with coat of arms, to James and George Clavering. A mid-18th-century white marble slab in Classical style commemorates members of the Greenwell family. The south aisle contains a monument to George Hedley of Burnhopeside Hall, died 1886, describing his father William's achievements in railway locomotive engineering.

The pews and many furnishings are by Thompson of Masham. The chancel stalls have traceried backs and foliage-carved misericords. A 17th-century communion rail with widely-spaced turned balusters supports a grip rail.

The south porch contains a high-quality Roman altar to the goddess Garmangabis and medieval cross-slabs. Other medieval cross slabs are reported to be in the tower.